JMS on Zombie War

Although a lot of recent flicks featuring the shambling undead deserved to be shot in the head and returned to the grave, the cinematic corpses will inevitably rise to consume a bit of raw human flesh. And people like Brad Pitt and BABYLON 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski will help tell the story of mankind’s full-blown chaotic conflict against deadly meat.

Paramount is getting the hungry horrors in gear (assisted by Pitt’s Plan B production company) with WORLD WAR Z. The superb novel (and even better audiobook) from Max Brooks (yes, son of Mel) is set in the aftermath of a war fought between humanity and a legion of flesh-eating zombies, and is told anthology-style through a series of “interviews” with survivors. Straczynski, a prolific comic writer, told the still-living masses at this past weekend’s New York Comic Con that he was adapting the book (subtitled An Oral History of the Zombie War), and faces the challenge of “creating” a main character – which may be played by Pitt himself. Bring on the zombie apocalypse!

Brooks has previous knowledge and devotion to the mobile deceased – he wrote “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead”, an exhaustive reference manual on what to do in case of an infestation, from weapon and combat techniques to how to live in a world overrun by undead, plus a nifty summary on the myths and realities surround the living dead and a listing of zombie sightings throughout history.

Extra Tidbit:

Pitt’s Plan B grabbed the rights to the then-unpublished book last summer after a bidding war with Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio.